London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Bethnal Green 1898
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green]
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23
THE SEVEN PRINCIPAL ZYMOTIC
DISEASES.
The total number of deaths from this class of disease is 496 ; of
these, 426 were those of young children aged less than five years.
In Table D the deaths from each of these diseases are shewn and
compared with those of the preceding year.
TABLE D.
| 1898. | 1897. | |
|---|---|---|
| Small Pox | 0 | 0 |
| Measles | 151 | 109 |
| Scarlet Fever | 11 | 24 |
| Diphtheria.. | 64 | 87 |
| Whooping Cough | 110 | 53 |
| Typhus Fever .. .. | 0 | 1 |
| Enteric Fever | 17 | 18 |
| Simple Fever .. .. .. | 0 | 1 |
| Diarrhoea .. .. .. | 143 | 147 |
| Cholera | 0 | 4 |
| 496 | 444 |
Seventeen per cent. of the total deaths from all causes were
referred to the diseases included in table D, against sixteen per cent,
in 1897. The actual increase in number is 52.
The 496 zymotic deaths exceeded the decennial average for the ten
years 1888 to 1897, Table V. in the appendix shows this figure to be
485. An inspection of Table D will show that the increase in the
number of deaths is due to measles and whooping cough. The
spread of both of these diseases is practically outside sanitary
control, neither is notifiable, and isolation or removal to hospital
cannot be enforced; both are spread through the agency of Schools.